What LDC graduation will mean for Bangladesh’s drugs industry

Bangladesh’s pharmaceutical industry is unique among least developed countries (LDCs). Driven by active government policies, output has grown a thousand times since 1982, to US$2 billion, or around 1% of gross domestic product, making it the biggest white collar employer in the country. The industry supplies almost the entire domestic market and more than 100 other countries including the United States.

It’s of some concern, then, that if Bangladesh potentially leaves the LDC category in 2024 it’ll no longer have access to a special World Trade Organisation waiver which exempts the industry from the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of International Property Rights. The exemption has allowed government to pursue a dedicated industrial policy that’s spurred growth until now.

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